The Guardian of death
by Illustriousgiraffe
Summary: Jack never thought he would cross paths with death again, but when a threat arises the Guardians may have to team up with this unlikely ally. Everyone believes in death, because death is reality.
1. Chapter 1

**Plot bunny attacked me so here is the result, it's kinda short but there will be more. No spoilers for the movie in this chapter... I think...If you haven't seen the movie you have to ITS AMAZING it was so good that I am still recovering from it's amazingness and I saw it two days ago.**

**I don't own this at all :(**

All the guardians were assembled in the North Pole, waiting for something, anything really. The man in the moon had called them together once more, and no one knew why.

Jack Frost was a bit late, he had been trying to make it snow a bit too close to the equator and it had taken way longer than he had expected it to.

He arrived through a window, blown in by cool winter breeze.

Everyone went up to greet him, Bunnymund ruffling his hair, North giving him a very strong handshake, Tooth outright hugging the winter spirit, and Sandy calmly waving.

"Hey everyone, What did I miss?" Jack asked walking closer to the globe in the center of the huge room, The lights were pretty strong and abundant, Christmas was only a few weeks away and all the children of the world were waiting excitedly for the holiday.

"Nothing," Tooth said as she flitted around the room, "We are still waiting for Manny to tell us something."

Bunnymund approached the globe and stood next to Jack. "Wonder wha' it is this time around? Hope it's not another you," Bunny said giving Jack a light punch on the arm.

Before Jack could retort with a witty answer, the room shook slightly. Everyone looked around, the Yetis stopped working, the elves stopped jingling, the whole workshop became eerily quiet.

Sandy tried to point everyone's attention to the emblem on the floor, which was beginning to glow. Of course he was always the one to notice things since he couldn't yell for the others. Sandy threw a sand ball at a nearby Yeti, the beast immediately crashed down on the floor, snoring.

That got their attention and before North could scold the little floating man he pointed to the floor.

"Sandy is right, something is happening," North said looking at the floor panels which had once opened to reveal a crystal, but this time it didn't look as though there was going to be a new guardian, instead the seams between the stones were glowing.

This glowing was unnatural though and looked as though the colors had been turned inside out, instead of the bottom of the light being the strongest white it was completely black and faded into lighter shades as it extended.

The little rays of darkness became more intense, and pretty soon the seams were completely filled with the dark light reaching up into the air. Everyone took a step back from the design on the floor, and rightly so because as soon as they did the light burst so high that it reached far into the rafters of of the enormous building.

"What do you suppose tha' is mates?" Bunnymund asked inching forward a bit, only to retreat when the 'light' flared.

But as abruptly as the darkness had started it began to die down. The beam moved quickly towards the ground and stopped when it was at about Bunnymunds height.

No one knew what was happening, no one except for Jack, he knew who this was, and he was deathly afraid. Jack had subconsciously backed away and was holding his staff defensively, but behind his somewhat strong facade he was on the verge of tears, the being in front of them was the one who had taken him from his family all those years ago.

It wasn't pitch, the darkness this being was made of was that of a different kind, it was a pure darkness, it had depth, and it seemed as though one could get lost in it for eternity.

The light never fully formed anything, it took on the rough shape of a person, tall and lean, but never fully solidified it's outline, it's edges always flickering and twisting, like a dark fire. The whole thing just looked like some strange black hole drifting in the middle of the room. Being Gauradians, no one present, excluding Jack, had ever met this spirit, for this was the spirit of death.

Jack realized that he would have to explain in some way, since his friends were utterly speechless and all wore looks of confusion and bewilderment.

The black figure turned towards Jack, although it was hard to tell which direction it was actually facing since it's shape was never fully a solid.

"What do you want?" Jack finally spoke up.

The figure simply stood there, not responding.

"Jack do you know who this is?" North asked looking at his young friend, who was obviously trying to hide his fear.

"Yes . . ." Jack struggled to find words, "I met him . . . a very long time ago," Jack said, still struggling. "This is death." Jack finally managed to spit out.

**To be continued**

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	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the next chapter. I already got 6 like in about an hour! thanks for the support. Im kind of writing the plot as I go, i have no idea what will happen next so if you have ideas please pm or review with ideas :)**

**Hope you like it**

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North immediately understood why Jack was so terrified, Jack knew what it was like to be in death's grasp. North approached the teenager and placed a hand on his shoulder, if it was even possible, Jack seemed colder than normal.

"Wha' do you wan' from us?" Bunny said reaching for his boomerang, he didn't like the way Death was looking at Jack.

"Nothing," the voice was surprisingly solid compared to the appearance of the being, It was strange seeing something so empty looking and hearing a voice coming out loud and clear. The voice was masculine and had so much depth that you could barely describe an accent or tone, in a way it was solid by if you listened hard you could hear a whispery echo following each word closely behind.

"Then why are you here?" Asked Tooth, examining what appeared to be death's face, she was looking for teeth but saw nothing but darkness, how intriguing, she would have to look into it later.

Death obviously didn't like to talk since he had only said one word since his arrival and was now pointing to the globe instead of verbally answering the question.

"The children?" asked North n his burly voice. He looked at the globe, the lights seemed to be glowing strong.

Death kept pointing, North wasn't completely correct.

When no one came up with an adequate statement, Death sent a wisp of black towards the globe, it circled once and then broke into billions of tiny dots covering the globe. The dots were similar to the dots of the children who believed but were black and slightly larger, they covered almost every part of the entire globe.

Death drifted around, looking for a guess.

Jack knew what it was, "The whole world is in danger, not just the children." Jack said rather weakly, he still couldn't face Death, and to his dismay the dark figure melted into the shadows and reappeared next to him, as if to confirm what the winter spirit had said.

Jack jumped slightly, looking up to meet the invisible gaze of Death, he had no visible eyes but Jack could feel the harsh stare.

Jack was on the verge of running to the opposite side of the room when he realized something, something about the spirit of Death was off, "Where is your scythe?" Remembering the menacing image death had portrayed when he had died, He had stood as he did now, but he held the long staff with a sharp curved black blade on one end.

Death looked at Jack, clever boy, people saw death for a few seconds at most when the met their demise, very few could remember details, if they even remembered their encounter with the terrifying embodiment of death at all.

Death paced himself, talking was a strain, since he used all the voices of everyone who had ever died to speak. He also knew their reaction would be bad and he would need to put it as plainly as possible. "Pitch has it." Death said, seeming to become more solid with each word, his power was draining, it would never disappear though, everyone believed in death.

Jack stared in horror at the gliding black creature, he never thought he would feel pity for death, the one who had taken him away from his sister and his parents, but he understood what it was like to have the power you possessed ripped from you hands. When Pitch had broken his staff he had felt vulnerable for the first time in his immortal life, almost like he could die.

Death struggled to speak again, but he was pretty sure that it would be impossible to act out what he was about to say, "No one has died for two days." He said, his stature growing shorter as his energy was stolen by the life force of billions of dead people who formed his voice. When he had his scythe he had enough power to speak freely but now it was a taxing ordeal.

The five Guardians stared at him, No one had died for two days!? how was that even possible? Although death wasn't looked at as a good thing, it was a balancing force of nature, if no one died for long enough, the world would overflow with people. Death was a natural part of life and if nature was tampered with there was no telling what could happen.

"You're scythe holds your power doesn't it?" Tooth asked approaching the slightly menacing spirit of death. She needed no reply to know the answer, the scythe was Death's power.

"An' if Pitch 'as it does that mean . . ." Bunny said before he was cut off

"He can kill." Death said plainly.

"This is not good, not good at all," twittered tooth nervously, fluttering here and there around the room.

Just as each Guardian was thinking of what to do they heard a laugh, a deep, maniacal laugh, they all knew that laugh, it sounded too triumphant to be anyone else.

Pitch back stood atop the huge globe, holding Death's Scythe as if it were his own, he looked the same, except his eyes, they were now mirrors of his name, Pitch Black.

"Pitch this has gone to far, you are the master of fear, not death." North said.

"Oh but the best way to instil fear," He said letting the incomplete sentence hang in the air, "is with death," with the flick of the scythe the floor became covered in dark sand, coming up to the ankles of the Guardians.

While they were distracted Pitch materialized the bow and arrow he had used to kill Sandy once already. He notched an arrow and filled it with hatred and nightmares and a new touch that he adored, death.

Pitch aimed.

He fired.

Bunny turned around, feeling that something was wrong, he turned just in time to see a black arrow plunge into Jack's abdomen. The teen fell to the ground immediately, Bunny rushing to his aid.

By the time Bunnymund reached Jack his eyes were closed, Jacks world had already faded into blackness

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	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you so much for all the support! I hope you like this chapter, it is slightly uneventful so I hope you like it Ill try to update at least once more this week! Any idea I love ideas? and I'm kinda lost and thinking of a plot as i go along :P**

**Enjoy!**

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"Oh don't worry," Pitch said, smirking at the looks of horror on the faces of the Guardians. "He's not dead . . . yet." adding the last bit with a chuckle.

Pitch switched back to a more lecturing tone, "You see how much fear I have just caused all of you? Do you see how effective this method is? I only had to touch one of you to set off fear in all of your hearts." Pitch said. "With the power of death, everyone will be afraid of the dark." said the Boogeyman with a terrifying grin on his face.

With that last cryptic message he melted into the shadows and left the Guardians standing, dumbfounded and afraid.

Bunnymund turned back to the young Guardian lying on the ground, Jack was deathly still, he had a look of sheer terror on his face and to the touch felt colder than normal.

Tooth flew over and hovered over Jack, "Oh my . . . oh Jack . . . what are we going to do? Is he . . . " Tooth ranted nervously, looking back and forth as though she could somehow see the answer floating in the air somewhere.

"No he's alive . . . barely though," Said Bunny, gently picking up the limp form of the teenager and cringing a bit at the cold temperature of his skin. By then the arrow had disintegrated into sand and the only indication that anything had happened was a bloody stain and a tear in the icy blue sweatshirt that hung limply on Jack.

The young boy had become closer with his fellow Guardians in the past few months and was like the annoying brother that they never had, to see him like this made them incredibly sad and uncontrollably angry.

Tooth followed close behind Bunny, hovering over his shoulder and looking at Jack's scrunched up features, his eyes were shut tight, his mouth in a tight frown, his brow was furrowed, the whole thing seemed to Tooth like some mixed up emotion of fear, depression, and confusion. What could possibly be going on the poor boy's mind?

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Jack opened in his eyes and found that he couldn't see anything. He could feel that his eyes were open but it was so dark around him that they may as well have been closed. Although Jack wasn't afraid of the dark, he had become pretty apprehensive of it ever since he had met Pitch.

Jack tried to recall what had happened, he had met up with his friends . . . and then what? Jack shivered as he remembered a bit more, Death had shown up and told them something. . . what had he told them?

He thought for a moment, Death had been missing something, it was his scythe.

Pitch had the scythe.

Jack Staggered back when the events of the past hour flooded into his mind. He had been shot by an arrow, Pitch's arrow.

Jack almost let out a growl, that evil, slimy, idiot had taken him away from his family, again.

He could barely breath, come to think of it he wasn't breathing at all . . . odd, he thought. He knew he wasn't dead, Jack knew what that felt like, and it was most definitely not like this.

Jack had to find a way out of wherever he was, his friends were in trouble and so was the entire world. Little did jack know that he would be stuck there for quite some time.

Jack was shaken from his thoughts when he heard the cry of a girl, "Jack!"

Jack knew that voice, it was his sister, she was in trouble! He ran Through the darkness towards the sound of the voice and suddenly he was running through a cold forest instead of a dark void, it unnerved Jack, but what unnerved him wasn't the fact that he was now in a forest, it was the fact that he felt cold, he was never cold. Ever.

He approached a familiar frozen pond, one he had been to one too many times. He looked around, straining his ears for the voice he had heard moments ago.

He Jumped when he heard it again, this time directly behind him, when he twirled around only to find the empty snow. Something was definitely off.

"Jack!" This time Jack heard it in the direction of the pond, he turned to see a small girl, with smooth brown hair and a worried expression gracing her small features.

Jack saw his sister out on the ice, staring into the murky depths as she stood on the edge of a gaping hole.

Jack approached the hole in the ice, hoping to help his sister in some way, looking down hesitantly at the dark blue water, he saw a brown haired boy, eyes closed, slowly drifting down into the darkness.

Jack almost fell in when he heard the girl scream again.

"Help somebody help! My brother has fallen into the water!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

"It's alright, I'll help you." he said trying to calm her down.

But it seemed that he was invisible once again as she started to run away from Jack as fast as her small legs would carry her, not even bothering to take of her skates.

Jack was about to follow when he found that he already was, he was riding the wind above the girl, watching her run. He wanted to reach out and help her go faster but found that he had no power over anything, it was almost like watching a movie, a sick twisted nightmare of a movie that you couldn't change the channel on.

The girl finally reached a small town, Jack recognized it as Burgess, but it was smaller and old, still the same as it was when he was a mortal. She frantically ran up to a small shack and pounded on the door.

"Pippa what's the matter, where is Jack?" A woman with brown hair asked as she opened the door, catching the girl as she almost fell in from knocking so hard.

"He fell in the ice! We have to save him! Hurry!" she said almost too fast to understand.

The womans face became laced with worry and she called in to her husband. Seconds later a tall man ran out and ran through the forest the way Pippa had come.

Jack found himself back at the lake, just in time for him to see the man running out of the thick layer of trees and onto the ice with some rope.

The man got on his hands and knees and looked into the depths, he couldn't see any sign of his son, he knew that it was too late. He stood up slowly, looking to the woods where several other men were emerging to see if they could help.

Many of them stopped short when they saw the tears in the father's eyes. It had been too long, the water was too deep, there was no chance.

Jack found the whole scene heartwrenching, he knew it was his own story, and this was what had happened after he had saved his sister, he didn't want to see more, he couldn't bear it, but he couldn't stop watching, he was stuck there. He was unable get away, so he was forced to watch as his family gathered on the reflective surface of the frozen water and mourned the loss of their only son.

The girl, Pippa, was bawling in her mother's arms, the woman was crying uncontrollably, and the man held them both in his arms, letting a few tears slip through his though facade.

Jack had started crying at this point, he wanted to reach out, yell that he was right in front of them, but he had no voice, he was invisible again.

What kind of nightmare was he in?

Just as he thought there could be no more anguish contained in his heart, a deafening crack was heard and the ice beneath his family collapsed, plunging them down to join their dead relative. The other people there were suddenly engulfed in shadows, unable to move to help the struggling family.

Jack let out a scream, a silent, long, painful scream.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Jack knew that this wasn't real, but it all felt so solid, and he couldn't ignore the fact that he had just seen his family die the same death he had all those years ago. His mind was fighting with itself, one half of it saying that this was impossible and he was having a nightmare, the other shouting that he was in a real forest, feeling real cold, on his real face, and the whole scene was real. It tore at his mind, he lowered to his knees in the snow, not knowing who to trust, his logical side or his senses. The whole thing felt so real. How could it not be?

Jack sat crying, eventually sinking lower into the snow as he laid down his aching body, he didn't know how long he had been crying but his ribs and throat were raw from it.

Pitch was never going to let him out of this nightmare prison, and that made Jack afraid, very, very, afraid.

**Reviews are nice, they make my day! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay kinda just a transition chapter, hope you guys like it. Thanks for all the reviews and follows and favorites, this chapter is kinda all over the place, my mind sort of died in school today so i had to put it back together and write this, I think I put my brain back together wrong oh well!**

**enjoy! (idk why I say that every time, its like I'm telling you to enjoy a meal, but I'll probably just keep saying it)**

It was North's shift to watch over the troubled winter spirit. He sat and watched the teenager in the bed, he was shaking a bit and he had a face on as though he was crying, but there were no tears coming from his eyes. They had already figured out that Jack was in a constant nightmare, Sandy had tried to enter his mind and see what was wrong, but was unable to see anything at all, he had almost fallen over from all the dark magic blocking Jack's mind from the outside. It was as though the aspect of death had locked Sandy out of his own realm, Jack was having a nightmare but he was also dying, it put up a barrier that Sandy couldn't pass.

That was another thing that had stumped everyone, why wasn't jack completely dead yet? That arrow should have killed him on contact, but here he was, dying slowly and painfully. North had suspicions that this was all part of Pitch's plot, Pitch hated Jack with a passion and there was no other explanation as to why he hadn't just outright killed Jack, there had to be a reason.

North felt a bit of a chill in the room and turned to see Death standing beside him. The fluctuating form of the spirit of death appeared to be looking down at Jack, but North could never be fully sure, Death had no face and his head was not very defined from the rest of his body, making it difficult to tell where the spirit was looking.

"The boy is scared." Death said, effectively making the large Russian man jump about an inch. North would never get used to the abruptness of that strange voice.

"Yes Jack is very scared, is having Nightmare." North said with his thick accent.

Death looked at Jack and back to North, trying to get his point across without using his voice.

Apparently, North was not the best at reading people because he asked a totally irrelevant question, "Is there anything we can call you besides death? It is always death this and death that, is beginning to sound funny."  
Death would have face palmed if he had that type of personality, North was a bit thick, but he figured it would just confuse him more if he didn't answer, so he waited for a moment before saying, "Grim"

"Ahh, I knew you had name," He said patting 'Grim' on the shoulder, he found that Death was somewhat solid but at the same time felt fragile like you hand could pass through with enough force.

"Pitch feeds on fear," Grim said, beginning to tire from all the talking he was doing.

"Yes, and . . .?" North said, still not getting it.

Grim just stood there, this was getting irritating, he would just have to wait until another, more observant Guardian came into the room.

After quite some time of standing there awkwardly, Bunnymund finally walked in with Tooth following close behind, freeing the two from the tense silence that had stayed in place since their failed conversation.

"Any change?" asked Bunny.

"No," North said, looking down.

"Poor Jack," Said Tooth, looking sadly at the poor boy lying in the bed.

Sandy walked in looking tired and rubbing his eyes, he was a bit surprised to see Death standing at the side of Jack's bad, they hadn't seen much of him since he arrived, he tended to stick to the shadows, or maybe it was the other way around and the shadows tended to stick to him. Either way Sandy didn't really know what to think of the strange spirit.

Seeing the sandman, Grim approached, thinking that the Guardian who couldn't talk would best understand him. Grim simply phased through the furniture instead of walking around the bed, causing the Guardians to look at him strangely, but he simply ignored their looks and kept going..

Sandy gazed up at the dark shadow of a man, he looked quite intimidating to the small bright spirit, but he also seemed to want to say something, so Sandy looked at him attentively.

Sandy materialized a question mark atop his head.

Death pointed a thin finger to Jack "Fear," He stated simply.

As the two conversed almost silently, with the occasional word from Grim, the others watched with interest and confusion, unable to tell what they were talking about.

Sandy finally turned to his friends and began to slowly walk them through it. He materialized a likeness of Jack out of sand and waited for the others to form words from his depiction.

"Jack . . ." Said Bunnymund slowly.

Sandy nodded, making an scarred face out of sand.

"Sad." Said tooth quickly.

Sandy indicated that she was close, moving his hand back and forth slightly.

"Scared," She corrected herself, "Jack is scared."

Sandy nodded again, this was going to take a while

The sandman then made a small blob of sand that looked like pitch and made it grab the sad face.

"Pitch likes fear?" North cut in.

Sandy nodded enthusiastically, they were close! Sandy made the little Pitch grow in size, moving his arms to a strong position.

"Pitch gets stronger . . . when he . . . when others are afraid?" Tooth struggled.

Sandy did a small twirl gesturing for them to put it all together.

Bunnymund stepped forward, "Pitch gets stronger when people are afraid, people like Jack . . . Pitch is using Jack's fear as a power source!' Bunny said, suddenly realizing what the whole game of charades they had played meant.

Death smiled, just because no one could see his face it didn't mean he didn't have one. His lips curved into a smirk, they had done it ridiculously, but at least they had done it.

Tooth started to pace in the air, "So Pitch is keeping Jack live so. . . so he can scare him, and use his fear as power."

"And what's more powerful than the fear of a Guardian?" Bunny asked rhetorically. "As long as Jack is like this Pitch will be unstoppable." Bunny said turning towards the bed.

"We have to help him!" twittered Tooth.

"But how, Sandy already tried and he couldn't get in the nightmare." North said.

Sandy put a skull above his head in sand.

"The only reason he couldn't though, was because Jack is dying." Bunny translated sadly, the winter spirit was so young and full of life, this was not something he ever thought he would see.

Sandy put his signature question mark up, as if to say_ how do we do it?_

"Together," Said Grim.

"All of us? Sandy is the only one who can enter dreams." Said Tooth.

"I can." Grim said slowly, trying again in vain to get his point across. If they wanted to get past the barrier of death the would need some help, and they seemed to be forgetting that the master of death was standing in the room with them.

Bunnymund finally saw what was going on, "Sandy and er..Death. . ."

"Grim" Nort cut in.

"Alright," He said continuing, "Sandy and _Grim_ can enter Jack's nightmare an' get the barrier down together."

Sandy looked up at the void that was Death's face, they nodded together in agreement. They could do this together.

They approached the bed. Sandy simply had to sit by the side of the bed and extend a rope of sand into Jack's nightmare, while Grim had to fade into the shadows on the sand string and enter that way.

Grim and Sandy materialized next to one another and took in their surroundings. They stood in front of a huge wall, completely made of black stone, that seemed to extend for all eternity. Nothing else was visible, adn the only light was coming from Sandy's glowing form.

Death placed a long, slender hand on the wall, Sandy putting his smaller, chubby hand on top of it.

They concentrated all their energy on the destruction of the wall, channeling all their emotions into the task. Sandy using his empathy for Jack's fear, Grim using his anger at Pitch for messing with the balance of nature and taking his scythe.

They mentally pushed with all their might, the wall trembling beneath their touch.

The wall cracked.

**Review? If you have any ideas you can tell me cause I'm a bit scattered about whats should happen next, so please don't hesitate! anything you would like to see? not like to see? I'm in need of some ideas! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello! sorry I didn't update last night, i had way too much hw! But i will compensate for my lackingyness last night with they HUGE chapter, its over 3000 words...i think. I had almost no hw o=tonight so I've been righting for around two hours :P**

**I hope you enjoy it because it took a lot of work and yeah!**

As soon as they heard the cracking sound they took a large step back and stuck together. They watched the crack spread and eventually reached as far along the wall as they could see. The Sandman put up a shield of sand in anticipation of the crumbling rocks, but to their surprise, just as the wall appeared as though it would collapse, it completely vanished. The dark pieces of stone faded into the darkness and left the two spirits looking out at complete blackness.

Sandy gave a thumbs up to Grim, who simply turned and nodded, looking back out at the blackness that spread in front of them.

Sandy shrugged at Grim's silent question, he didn't have much of an idea of what to do either, so he started to walk, Death following close behind, agreeing with Sandy's decision, there wasn't much else they could do.

The two walked side by side, content by the silence, seeing as one of them couldn't talk at all and the other didn't like to. But there was also a feeling of danger in the air, making Sandy a bit apprehensive, he doubted Pitch would be kind enough to just put Jack in a black void, it, unfortunately, was definitely going to get worse than this.

They walked for quite some time, Sandy occasionally sending out a sand creature to scout ahead, none of which came back.

Sandy was about to send another when he heard a crunch. He looked down to see that he had just stepped in freshly fallen snow. How the snow had gotten there he had no idea, Sandy looked up, come to think of it, he had no idea how they had gotten in a forest either.

Grim looked around in confusion, he had just about as much idea about how a forest had suddenly appeared as Sandy did. The spirit of death did find that it was strange but knew that in the dream world nothing walked on the path of logic or normalcy, anything could happen.

As though the nightmare could read Death's thoughts several fearlings appeared from the thick foliage.

Death thought that for a nightmare it was somewhat predictable that the fearlings would be here but dismissed the thought as he took up a fighting stance

The nightmare again seemed to sense what Grim was thinking as the fearlings morphed into huge shadows, casting darkness over the pair of unwelcome spirits.

They would have to mind their thoughts, it seemed that in the realm of dreams, all thoughts were taken into consideration, not just those of the dreamer.

The giant shadows proved to be even harder to fight than you would think a shadow would be. It was almost impossible to strike one, and when you did you risked getting enveloped in the darkness.

Sandy managed to rope a lasso of sand around one shadow, and he channeled good dreams and fantasies through the rope as the shadow struggled. With a bright burst of light the rope broke and the light seeped through the dark outline of the shadow, effectively making it into a ray of sunshine. The new ray shone on it's old accomplices and aided Sandy and Grim in their fight.

After much struggle, and more energy than Grim thought he could use without his scythe, the fight was finally over. The forest was lighter now that the shadows had been changed into rays of light, but Sandy could feel the shadows around them pressing in on the small ray of hope that the light provided.

"Jack," said death pointing to a heap on the ground across a frozen pond.

Sandy's gaze followed the line that Grim's thin, sickly black hand was pointing. He saw the form of a teenager in a blue hoodie lying motionless in the snow.

The sandman didn't hesitate and ran towards Jack, Death following close behind shaking his head, his jolly little friend hadn't even considered the possibility that this was a trap, they were in Pitch's realm after all.

Sandy continued on, only thinking of his friend lying in the snow, Grim followed a bit more hesitantly, thinking of the high likelihood that they would get attacked.

Unfortunately Grim was correct, annoyingly for the third time, he really had to stop being so cautious, maybe if he didn't think of the bad possibilities they wouldn't become a reality. Sandy was halfway across a frozen pond when Grim heard a crack, he looked to the ice under Sandy's feet to see that it was cracking. At the same time he realized with horror that it was the lake where he had first met Jack Frost, the lake where Jack had almost died. Pitch had one sick mind, Grim didn't even want to begin to think about how many ways he could torture Jack in a place filled with so much pain for the young man.

Grim looked up and saw that the lake was cracking beneath Sandy's feet."Sandman!" Grim yelled as loud as he could, which wasn't very loud, considering his normal tone of voice was over a whisper.

Although quiet it didn't go unnoticed by Sandy, who quickly lifted himself on a platform of glowing sand and watched as a huge hole in the ice formed below him.

Grim quickened his pace, this would be the worst possible place to get separated, if they did there would be little chance that they would ever find each other again. And even if one of them managed to rescue Jack they would need their collective power to break out once again.

As Grim and Sandy regrouped, this time off of the dangerous ice, Jack began to stir. He had been dazed in a weakened state after all the horrors he had seen, it got worse and worse after the first vision he had of his family. Each nightmare worse than the last, some were about his Guardian freinds, others about his family, some were too horrible to even describe.

As Jack looked up he saw the Sandman standing on the opposite side of the small frozen pond, Then he noticed the solidified form of a shadow standing next to him, it was Death.

This didn't surprise Jack at all, he had seen enough Sandy's and Death's to circle the entire globe twice, his nightmare was filled with them.

Jack stood up slowly, weak from the last onslaught of nightmares that filled his torn up mind, he was beginning to weaken under Pitch's grip, after each nightmare he could feel himself slipping a bit further into his grasp.

Sandy tried to approach by crossing the river yet again, but Grim put a hand up to stop him, that hadn't worked so well the last time, no need for a repeat. Instead Grim shrunk into the shadows and appeared right in front of the tried looking Jack.

Jack flinched, expecting some horrible punishment from the imposter of his acquaintance, but when none came he looked up and his body tensed a little, Death could tell that Jack was still ready to run or fight if necessary, at least he had some fight left in him.

Jack looked at Death's 'face', the fear apparent in his features. He did not think he could run anymore, he barely had any energy left and was so terrified that it had become a normal feeling to him, he would think something was up if he didn't feel scared at some point in this endless nightmare.

Death raised a hand and was about to place it on Jack's shoulder when he was stopped by a voice that was not Jack's.

"Please don't," He said scrunching into himself and squinting his eyes shut, that voice did not belong to the happy-go-lucky teenager who was the Guardian of fun, it sounded like it would better fit a weak child who never had a home to speak of.

"I won't hurt you," Death said, using more words than he felt comfortable using.

"That's what they all say." said the dejected teen, turning away so he was partially shielded by a tree.

Death gestured for Sandy to come over. The Sandman quickly complied and, after zipping over the frozen pond, was at Jack's side.

Jack flinched again, unable to control his reflexes any more, in this world there was nothing that wouldn't hurt him, nothing that he could find comfort in, he was even beginning to doubt himself.

Sandy tried to send Jack's mind to rest by giving him some dream sand, but he soon found that his happy thoughts were rejected whenever they neared the poor winter spirit. That type of comforting wouldn't work when Jack was in such a bad state he needed help, and fast.

When Sandy tried to reach out to the boy he looked up in horror and bolted through the tree line. Sandy looked at Grim they turned and ran as fast as they could after Jack.

The trees passed in streaks of white and brown as the pair ran through the forest. They could see Jack's stumbling form in front of them as he tried to escape his rescuers.

They seemed to be in a stalemate, every time they got closer, Jack would renew his efforts and speed up. Grim briefly thought that he would rather stop and face Jack but he immediately regretted it as he knew the nightmare would answer his request in some sick twisted way.

Just as Grim had predicted the Nightmare shifted to accommodate his thoughts, this was beginning to become tiresome. The trees suddenly changed from rough brown to stark white, shifting and cracking to form a barrier around Sandy and Grim, they could see Jack in his own small prison several feet away.

The white trees twisted and crackled, starting to edge closer and closer to their victims. Just as fast as the trees had changed white they changed to completely black, still edging closer, by this point Sandy and Grim were back to back nearly covered in dark branches and leaves.

The trees shifted and united the two groups of captives, so that Jack was facing Sandy and Grim. Jack backed all the way up to the wall of trees, gripping the dark, rough, bark tightly.

"Jack, we are not going to hurt you." Said Grim, going to great lengths to help the boy, considering how hard it was to speak.

"I'm never safe here, no one is ever here to help, what makes you any different?" Said the teen, looking in a thousand different places as if searching for an escape route.

"We are real," Grim said, Sandy looked up at him, wishing he could help, sometimes he hated being a mute.

"No your not, nothing is real here except my fear," said Jack, trying to move farther back as the pair tried to approach him.

"I can prove it," Grim said, his form shrinking in size until he was about as short as Jack.

At first Sandy thought that Grim's power was just draining, but he soon realized it was something else when he saw Grim's features becoming more defined.

Death had taken on the form of a woman, she looked to be in her mid-fifties and was a medium height. Nothing could be told of the color of her skin or hair because She was completely black, her hair her eyes, her skin, everything was as dark as night.

Jack looked at the strange girl, she looked strangely familiar, but he couldn't place her in his frantic mind.

"Jack?" She said in an innocent and sweet voice, the voice was no longer Death's, it was as though he had managed to single out just one of the tones from his thick layered voice.

"Who are you?" Jack asked, more scared than ever.

"You don't recognize me? You look exactly the same, I missed you for my entire life, I always wished it had been me who had fallen in, I'm so sorry Jack." She said looking down and trying to approach jack.

"Pippa?" He asked cautiously.

"Yeah," She said smiling sadly.

"How do I know you're not fearling or another nightmare?" Jack asked his eyes still searching for an escape route.

"I can prove it to you Jack, I can tell you something Pitch could never know in a million years." She said, inching closer, she was now only a few feet away from him. "Do you remember that cool summer day in August when I was 8? We had stolen some taffy from the pantry and snuck off to the little meadow that only we knew about. There were yellow daisies and the air smelled of dew and grass. We sat down in the middle of our little meadow, eating the taffy, and you made me a promise." She said, now almost close enough to reach out and touch her brother's cheek. "You said to me that you would always be my big brother and would never leave me, You never did leave me Jack, you were always in my heart.

She looked at the cautious eyes of her poor brother. "Maybe you don't believe me, but I know something that no one could ever know if they weren't me. On that day you gave me a stone, it was just a rock, anyone who saw it would say it was just a normal old pebble, but it meant more to me. You told me a whole story about how it had belonged to a Princess a long time ago and she had passed it down as a good luck charm to her servant whose son was sick, you told me how it passed from that family to another's hands. You told me about the magical journey of the stone, and then you gave it to me, I never got rid of it Jack, I always kept it with me wherever I went, whatever I did. It may have been a made up story just to amuse your little sister, but to me it was a real story that my smart Big-brother knew about, and that plain old pebble was as valuable to me as all the gold in the world." By now Jack's eyes had stopped shifting and he was staring at the woman in front of him. He had stopped moving and his mouth was open as if he wanted to say something.

Pippa took his hand and he didn't even flinch, he actually squeezed her hand back as a sign of reassurance.

"It really is you," He said in barely above a whisper. He hadn't met her gaze yet but his nervous attitude had calmed profusely and he was now only a little nervous.

"Yes and it really is you, my smart brother with the magical stone," She said holding out her other hand.

Jack looked down at her hand, in it's dainty grasp was a small stone, Jack rushed into her arms, beginning to sob, she simply wrapped her dark arms around him, slowly rocking back and forth.

After a while they were sitting on the ground Jack actually looking calm and Pippa with a bittersweet look on her face.

She stroked jack's cheek, "I have to go now," She said lifting her brother's chin up to look at her. "I need you to trust Sandy and Grim, alright? They are real, they won't hurt you."

"I'll miss you," He said in a sad voice.

"I'll miss you too," she said getting up.

She turned away from Jack, "You're welcome and thank you," she said, not talking to Jack or Sandy, but to someone unseen.

Her features slowly began to become less defined and her stature soon increased, Death soon stood in her place.

Jack and Sandy look on in amazement, Death had actually pulled someone from his realm to speak with Jack, they were pretty sure that didn't happen very often .

Grim collapsed as soon as the transformation was done, it had taken almost all of his power to conjure up Pippa's spirit, and he was in no condition to even stand.

Sandy rushed up to his side, helping him sit up, and gesturing for Jack to come closer.

Sandy waved and reached out for a hug from Jack.

Jack accepted the hug, "Sorry I didn't trust you," Jack said, a bit of himself coming back to his voice.

Sandy motioned to Jack that it was fine and that he understood.

"Thanks Sandy, Thank you Grim," he said turning to the weak Spirit sitting next to him, he merely nodded in response, to exhausted to do much else.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Jack asked nervousness creeping back into his voice, "I've already tried, it's impossible, how did you even get in here?" He asked, for the first time wondering how it was possible.

Sandy motioned between Grom and himself.

"Together?"

Sandy nodded his head.

"We'll have to wait until Grim is powerful enough to leave won't we?" Jack said, he doubted that Grim could do anything in the state he was in.

Again Jack's question was answered with a nod.

"Ah the irony of it all" said a new voice.

Jack and Sandy turned to the direction of the voice.

"Death had to use all his power just to gain your trust and now, you're trapped in here," Said the voice stepping into the light, "with me."

It was Pitch.

**Well you finished! (or you just skipped to the bottom) either way i still have to say a few things:**

**Thanks for all the suggestions from everyone!**

**Pippa was older cause i imagined her soul would be the age when she died and i figured Jack wouldn't be able to handle it if she died young so yeah...**

**REVIEW PLEASE! was that too forceful? im srry if it was. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry I haven't updated for a while, school decided to try and kill me with homework bombs so I was in hiding trying to diffuse those bombs for al this time sorry I couldn't write (that sentence makes no sense :P). Well i'm really tired and have a headache so this might be strange;y written by i hope you enjoy it took forever to write! i always have something panned out to write in this front part while im writing the story and them by the time i get here i forget, oh well.**

**enjoy!**

* * *

"I have to admit it was a nice try, but now you're trapped." He said spreading his arms out in a

quick motion, the trees around them trembled against an invisible force and shattered, splinters and bark flying away from the group of spirits.

They were left standing in complete Darkness, only able to see Pitch and each other.

"There is nowhere to hide here, I can find you wherever you go, anywhere you run, there is no escape. So why not just give up, I'll kill you all now and you won't have to suffer, running around in an endless nightmare," he said with a grin, Jack could see the lies dancing in Pitch's auburn eyes, the nightmare king would never give up a chance to torment his worst enemies.

"You'll never win! do you want to know why? Because even though fear always exists, so does hope and love, and those two things are more powerful than you will ever be!" Jack said in a sudden outburst, taking all the emotional trauma he had from the nightmares out on Pitch.

"Aren't you feisty?" Pitch said with a chuckle, "I don't think you realize how powerful fear is, it's something that lives in everything, it's always lurking, it is the most powerful emotion. As we speak I am transforming the world into a place of fear, you and your pathetic 'hope' with never be able to stop me." Pitch said, completely ecstatic as he talked.

Jack felt a bit alone at the moment, he knew he could depend on Sandy and Grim, but he was the only one who could talk, the only one who could stand up to the Nightmare king standing in front of them. He would have to stay strong and keep going, maybe Grim could gain back enough power to escape if he could stall Pitch. It would be difficult, Pitch wasn't an idiot, he would be able to tell what was going on.

"What's the matter Jack? Cat got your tongue?" Pitch said with a laugh in his voice. The nightmare bended to it's master's will as at least ten pairs of red eyes emerged from the darkness. The eyes belonged to fearlings in the shape of panthers, they circled the defenseless spirits, growling and lunging from time to time.

Jack and Sandy managed to keep the panthers back, but it becoming increasingly difficult, considering that Jack didn't have his staff.

"Can't you see it now? You will never defeat me, if a few fearlings can kill you then how will you defeat fear itself?" Pitch said, circling with his fearlings around the trio.

"But they haven't killed us yet, have they? We will always fight! Besides maybe a little fear is good, it makes you stronger!" Said Jack, concentrating very hard, he stood still for a moment seeing if his plan would work. Miraculously it did, he looked into his hands to find his staff, it was his mind they were in afterall, he should be able to conjure up anything he wanted. He had managed to materialize his object of power in the dream, now at least they had a fighting chance.

Jack spun in a circle with his staff extended, cold air pushed the fearlings back, freezing a couple of them to the dark ground.

Jack backed up into Sandy, they would fight until they had no fight left in them.

Sandy sent out waves of sand, their tendrils extending into the darkness. Jack stood beside him channeling all the fear and anger he had accumulated while trapped in the nightmare world and shooting it back at the very nightmare that had tormented him so.

Pitch stood idly, not seeming to care very much as he watched the pathetic effort of his enemies, he had complete confidence that they could never win. So he stayed still and waited until his fearlings either ripped them all to shreds or they realized that they had no chance, he was hoping both would happen successively.

Jack was beginning to tire, he hadn't had that much energy in the first place, and now he was fighting for his life yet again. Fate, or the man in the moon, or some other all powerful being must have hated him, because every time he felt that nothing could go wrong, everything did. He had been a part of a family and Pitch came along and tried to kill him, he had gotten rescued only to be put in even more danger, and now he was fighting with the last of his power to defeat an almost indestructible enemy. This day just couldn't get any better.

Sandy was also beginning to weaken as well, he had been having trouble being in his anti-realm and staying in one piece, and now he had to fight a bunch of big cats made of the very sand he was using for a weapon, not fun.

Just as both Jack and Sandy thought they wouldn't hold out for much longer, Snady got an idea. It was so obvious that he wanted to smack himself for not realizing it earlier. Sandy just wished he could tell Jack with words because in their current position there wasn't really time to play charades.

If this was Jack's nightmare, and they had already broken the wall when they entered, Jack could just wake up and save them all. Now how would he go about telling Jack that?

Sandy thought of an idea, but it was risky, he could leave the dream himself and then shake Jack awake, but Jack wouldn't know what was happening and might freak out when Sandy left.

Apparently Grim had been thinking of a similar scenario, seeing as he made 'eye' contact with Sandy and nodded. They were on the same page, now how would they get Jack there?

Grim was starting to regain some strength, and he figured that if he left that no one would even notice, he was no more noticeable than a shadow after all. He decided that the only way to save the Sandman and Jack would be to get out and wake Jack up.

Death stood slowly and concentrated all his remaining power on returning to the world of the living. His form started to melt into the surrounding darkness until nothing was left and he ceased to exist in the strange nightmare world.

Jack tensed up when he realized that Grim wasn't behind him, if Grim left that meant that Sandy might leave too, since they both had the power to. He didn't think he could stand it if he was deserted.

Sandy put a reassuring hand on Jack's back, informing him that he wouldn't abandon him. The sandman gave the young winter spirit a wink and turned back to fighting, it was only a matter of time now.

* * *

Grim literally tumbled out of nowhere. He materialized from the shadows without his usual grace and stumbled onto the floor, standing shakily, he had been using way too much power lately.

Everyone stared at Grim, North waking up when he heard the spirit of death land on the floor with a thud.

No one dared ask what had happened, they were far too nervous that the worst had happened, it had been over a day since they went in after all.

Death saw their blank, nervous, stares. He would have to speak, fate just didn't like him today. He gathered up all his strength and looked at the urgent expressions on the Guardian's faces.

"Wake him," Death said, leaning on the wall for support, he now looked completely solid, with a form of a tall, thin man. His facial features were strange, you could tell they were there but if you looked directly at his face it seemed to be completely empty.

Bunny was to first to act, he moved towards Jack's bad with one hop and shook the teenager's shoulders gently.

Jack groaned a little, moving around fitfully. Bunny kept on shaking his shoulders, a bit more vigorously now. Jack tossed and turned a bit before his icy-blue eyes shot open.

The young spirit gasped, shooting straight up in his bed, his eyes wide open.

**so review yeah! im too tired to come up with some clever way of asking for reviews **


	7. Chapter 7

**Here is the next chapter, sorry it is somewhat short but I promise the plot will really pick up in the next chapter! there will be lots of (poorly written) action (Fight scenes are hard to write)! sorry if there are a lot of grammatical errors in this story I read it over the other day and was like 0_o how did that happen!? but ill try to fix those.**

**Happy 1st night of Chanukah everyone!**

**enjoy!**

* * *

"Jack!" Tooth shouted happily, zipping over to the bed and wrapping her arms around the young boy.

"Tooth?" Jack asked, still dazed from his nightmare, "Tooth!" He exclaimed happily, figuring out that he was out of his nightmare and in the real world.

"Good to have ya' back mate." Bunny said patting Jack's shoulder with one of his large paws.

"Are Sandy and Grim okay?" Jack asked looking around.

No one needed to answer his question as Sandy pushed his way past Bunny and stood by his bedside, smiling. They had made it out alive.

When Jack had woken up his nightmare had dissipated and deposited the occupants back in the real world.

Grim walked slowly over to the bed, leaning on the wall for support as he walked.

"Thank you guys," Jack said looking around at all his friends, he was so happy to finally be back with them.

"So what happened?" North asked, scooting his chair in closer to the bed.

Jack Explained most of the story, Sandy would gesture every so often, and Grim stayed completely silent. Jack told them about how they had found him and calmed him down and how they had faced Pitch. He left out all the nightmares he had had before they had came, there was no need to make them feel guilty, they did everything in their power to help him, and he was grateful for it.

After Jack finished relaying their story to the others he took a deep breath, he felt pretty tired after his long speech, he imagined this was how Grim felt every time he talked.

Jack was confused as to why he felt so tired, he had just woken up from being asleep for the better of two or three days and there was no way in hell he was going back to sleep, so why was he so tired.

That's when he realized that his entire chest was bandaged and his sweatshirt was no longer present on his abdomen, He had gotten past one hurdle, his nightmares, but that didn't mean he had overcome the other, his physical wounds. He would have to take it easy if he wanted to survive.

Tooth saw the teenger looking down at his wounds, poor boy, he had just been through hell and now he had another thing to worry him, "It'll be okay Jack," Tooth said, hovering over him.

"What about Pitch?" Jack asked.

"We'll stop 'im, we 'ave to." Said Bunnymund, "we did it once and we can do it again."

Jack was about to ask how they would do that when pitch was so powerful, when a worried looking yeti walked in.

It garbled something to North, who abruptly stood up and walked out the door, stopping at the threshold to say: "Come, there is something wrong with the globe."

Tooth flied out the door quickly, followed by Sandy. Jack made a move to get up, but was stopped by a large furry paw.

"Not you, mate," Bunny said, "You don't want to pass out do ya', we'll check it out and tell you what's 'appening " He said Turning to see Grim struggling out the door, "You too Reaper."

Grim complied and sat down in a chair next to the door, Letting Bunnymund pass him by and exit the room.

Jack looked over to the completely solid reaper. "Thank you," Jack said sincerely.

Death simply nodded and leaned his head back on the wall.

Jack could see death's face out of the corner of his eyes, he was able to make out a few features, he had a pretty normal face, the only thing that surprised him was that Grim had completely white eyes that almost glowed. Jack had imagined that they would be black voids, it surprised him that they were so bright, even if you couldn't really see them when you looked at his face.

The two sat in silence, Jack was just happy that he was out of his nightmare and back in reality, and Grim was enjoying the silence and peace.

Jack looked around the room, taking in how much more solid and less menacing everything felt, it was comforting that he could finally relax and not constantly have to be looking over his shoulder.

* * *

"What's wrong with it?" Bunny asked as he walked down the hall with Tooth, Sandy, and North.

"I don't know, the Yeti did not tell me," North said, turning a corner that would bring him to the main room in his workshop where the globe resided, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Tooth asked, becoming silent as she came to stand next to North, The globe was most definitely not okay.

Bunny found out why no one was speaking when he rounded the corner and saw the globe, or what was left of it.

The whole thing was beginning to corrode, black holes were eating up the metal, expanding faster by the second. Pretty soon there would be nothing left of the huge metal structure. The holes seemed to be the largest and darkest in the places on the globe where were large cities were located, some holes so large that they occupied almost entire continents.

The worst part of it was the lights, they were so far and few between that you could look at the globe from certain angles without seeing any at all.

"Oh no," Tooth said in a voice that was barely over a whisper.

"What is going on?" North asked, confused.

"I don't know but I'm guessing it has something to do with Pitch." Bunnymund said angrily.

North walked up to a screen that displayed the news channels from different places around the world, he usually used the monitor to plan out his route or see what was happening in the parts of the world he would be delivering to, but now it would pose as a good way to see what they were up against.

"The entire world is being taken over by shadows, they aren't normal though, they are dangerous, people have been dying. The news channels report that there are natural disasters happening around the world and from the looks of it peoples personal nightmares are chasing them around." North said, lifting his head from the screen after examining it. "We have to stop him." North said firmly, the the other two guardians nodding in agreement.

"But how?" Tooth asked worriedly.

"I know," said a new voice.

The guardians turned to see Grim and Jack using each other for support, they looked pretty worn out, the walk had been quite the ordeal for them, but they were beginning to get impatient sitting in the small room.

Grim was so solid now that you could see his face, it must have been important if he had been willing to become even more solid to tell them.

"You do?" North asked.

"He has a plan," Assured Jack, trying to sound stronger that he actually was.

"Well," Said Bunny, crossing his arms, "let's hear it."

**Review! yay!**


	8. Chapter 8

**here is the next chapter, i really have no idea where I am going with this but it will be awesome rest-assured so i hope you guys like it. It took some time to write. Happy 3rd night of Chanukah!**

**enjoy!**

* * *

After Grim had had a proper glare session with the impatient Bunny, the Guardians had all assembled, with chairs for their two weak members, and discussed Grims plan.

After two or some hours of meticulous charades and one word explanations, the whole ordeal was finally over and they could move on from deciphering hand motions to fighting their greatest enemy.

Jack stood on wobbly legs, leaning heavily on his staff, while the others stood nervously around him, ready to lunge to catch him if he toppled over. Grim, who was looking a bit more soft around the edges once again, stood without as much difficulty as Jack and made a silent vow to himself that he would not say one more word until he got his staff back.

The first part of the plan was to go out into the world and see how they could help the humans and to observe how bad it had gotten, hopefully none of them would meet Pitch alone, they needed all their collective power in order to defeat him and enact their plan.

Tooth and Sandy were paired together and would take on Africa and Europe. North was paired with Grim,they would be covering Asia and Australia. Bunny and Jack were together, they would be tackling North and South America. They were to stay together at all times and never stray too far into the darkness.

The Guardians all went their separate ways, be it by sleigh, portals in the ground, or flight, and started out on what hopefully would be a successful mission to defeat fear.

* * *

Bunny looked at Jack, he wasn't too sure his young friend should've been walking around in underground holes in his condition, but they couldn't have just left him back at North's place, and in Bunny's opinion it was better than flying.

"I'm fine, Bunny," Jack said, feeling his friend's green eyes boring a hole into his head.

"No your not, an' you know it. Don't you go and do somethin' stupid out there alright?" Bunny said, not wanting Jack to do something heroic and ending up injuring himself more.

"Oh I'll be fine, just make sure _you_ don't do something stupid," Jack said, getting back to his old teasing self.

Bunnymund scowled, glaring at the top of Jack's head.

After much hopping and walking Bunny stopped and opened a hole to the surface, Jack stumbled through and Bunny followed after him.

When they emerged from the ground what they found shocked and terrified them, they subconsciously moved closer together, a reflex to the danger around them.

Fearlings of various shapes and sizes ran through the streets, chasing people and spreading shadows wherever they stepped. Some of the fearlings were in the shape of the dark horses they were used to seeing but many more were in different forms. They saw animals as small as foxes, and creatures as large as dragons, everywhere they turned there were shadows, and despite it being two in the afternoon the light made it seem as though it was dusk, the sunlight seemed to be retreating to the skies, and the sound of screams made for a din of terror.

"Oh no . . ." Jack said in a whisper.

After overcoming the shock, Bunny and Jack sprang into action, Bunny threw his boomerang into a huge bear fearling that was chasing a family. The bear roared in agony and disintegrated into dust, falling to the ground quickly and disappearing on contact. The family looked up in fear, feeling slightly more safe, but still nervous that it was some form of trickery from their nightmares.

It made Bunny so angry that these humans had so much fear, he couldn't believe how much damage Pitch had done in two days.

Before Bunny could move to help them, shadows descended upon the small family and dragged them into the darkness, Bunny heard their screams for a moment before they were cut short and followed by a painful silence. This was far worse than any nightmare that Bunny could've imagined, and the worst part was that it was reality.

Bunny reluctantly resumed his fighting, throwing his boomerang with precision and staying near Jack so neither of them would be attacked from behind.

Jack sent a freezing wind through a large group of sand monsters that seemed to have no distinct shape but were very large and menacing. The monsters froze in place long enough Bunny to retrieve his boomerang and throw it through the crowd. The large forms shattered like glass and disappeared like their other late accomplices.

Bunny and Jack backed up into each other, Bunnymund noticed that Jack was leaning a bit onto his furry back, the poor kid wouldn't last very long, this was not the best strategy, he was starting to doubt Grim's planning skills.

"Do you think this'll work?" Jack asked, bashing in the head of a horse fearling with his staff.

"I hope it does, it better, or there's not much else we can do to save the world." Bunny said, he wished he had killed Pitch once and for all the last time they met, even though that wasn't quite possible, it gave the easter bunny strength thinking about giving Pitch what he deserved.

"Well he can't fight us all at once, so I'm hoping he falls for it." Jack said, Grim had said that this would work and he trusted him, but he wished it could all just be over.

As if their reluctant prayers had been answered, the Fearlings suddenly stopped and started to stamp their feet, paws, hooves, and various other appendages on the ground, looking around confusedly. That couldn't be anything good.

Jack and Bunny were very confused, why had their attackers stopped? This didn't make sense, they knew from experience that fearlings never let their victims go, and never stopped haunting until they were killed.

They realized at the same time that their plan had, unfortunately for them, been a success. Bunny sent two of his eggs through a small portal in the ground with a message painted on them, they would take a direct route to the locations of the other Guardians and would hopefully bring them all to Buny's location. He could only hope.

With that done, the two Guardians took up a fighting stance and looked around apprehensively, expecting some sort of dramatic entrance from Pitch.

Just as predicted the nightmare king decided to make a very theatrical entrance as he descended from the shadows that shielded the sky as his fearlings backed up and all bowed to their master. The king of fear was so terrifying that he scared his own nightmares into submission. The fearlings seemed to be ready to bolt if necessary.

"How cute," Pitch said with a chuckle, "you're actually trying to defeat me." Pitch had reached the ground by this point and was standing a few feet from the stiff forms of the Guardians.

"Trying would be the wrong word to use, we _will_ defeat you." Jack said defiantly.

Pitch laughed, Jack was beginning to think that the guy had some weird disease where he had to laugh at everything, it was really starting to get on his nerves, Pitch was way too overconfident, he found everything they did funny.

"Fine I'll word it any way you would like, but either way it will be the same: You will never win." Pitch said leaning down a bit to look into Jack's eyes.

The blackness of those eyes unnerved Jack to no end, it was as though he was staring straight into hell when he looked at the reflective black surface. Now Jack knew why Grim's eyes weren't black, death wasn't meant to be scary, or evil, it was supposed to be part of life, his eyes were light because it was his nature to be good, death meant making way for new life and taking part in the cycle, it was not only ends it was new beginnings too.

It made sense that Pitch had black eyes when he wielded the scythe, he represented everything evil and malicious that existed in the world.

"Well it was nice chatting to you but I believe your friends are causing some trouble in other places, so I'll be off after I kill you both." Pitch said nonchalantly as though he was talking about going to the supermarket.

Pitch swept the stolen scythe in front of him and a huge wave of shadows extended from its blade and began to travel towards the pair or Guardians, morphing into a giant hydra halfway.

"I remember when these things used to roam the earth, those were good times, everyone was afraid, no one dared go outside at night, and none of you existed, there was no hope, no fun." He said turning to each of the guardians when their protected virtue was mentioned.

The Hydra was completely black, it's scales shone brightly in the dim light, and its eyes looked similar to Pitch's own. It had three heads that constantly darted in different directions, and it was at least as tall as a two story building.

Jack and Bunny prepared for the fight of their lives.

The Hydra lunged.

**Sorry i used a hydra, i couldn't think of anything else that was more menacing and come on hydras are pretty cool anyway The hydra will eat you if you don't review!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Idk why this fight scene ended up being so long, it just kind off happened, my fingers just kept typing and wouldn't stop at making it short so it kinda dragged out, i think its also cause i subconsciously am trying to stall what is going to happen because i'm not entirely sure what that even is . . . also i think i used the word head like 50 times in this cause i couldn't think of a good synonym so i hope you dont mind reading that too much. and i think i did my mat wrong so lets just assume that there is a sixth head that magically appeared :)**

**enjoy!**

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Bunnymund and Jack were forced to separate as one of the heads darted between them, biting at the air where they had stood seconds before. The two spirits made eye contact, worried for each other, as well as the world, they had to win this fight.

While the middle head was recovering from its first lunge the other two heads each took on a Guardian, opening their mouths to reveal incredibly long, pointy teeth.

Jack managed to wedge his staff into the mouth of the hydra head that had chosen him, pushing with all his might as it's neck writhed around trying to free it's attacked head.

Bunnymund dodged the head that was attacking him, slashing at the malleable sand with his boomerang, effectively making a deep gash in the neck of the Hydra. The wounded head writhed back in pain as the middle head lunged at it's victim, aiming it's huge teeth at the furry bunny standing in front of it.

While Jack and Bunny were preoccupied, the head Bunny had wounded disintegrated into a pile of sand that fell to the ground and disappeared. The stump then began to tremble and two tendrils of sand popped out, curling at the ends and forming equally sized spheres that soon morphed into new, just as menacing heads.

"Bunny?" Jack asked while, trying to freeze the two heads that were attacking him at once, "Were we always fighting four heads?" he said uncertainly.

"I don't recall fighting more than three, mate." Bunny replied, daring a glance over at his struggling companion and soon looking back to his dark opponents when he sensed a head coming towards him quickly.

"How did that happen?" Jack asked himself quietly, trying to hold the frozen layer he had gotten over one of the heads and holding his staff in the mouth of another at the same time.

Jack focussed on freezing the head so much that it would break, after a moment of struggle the head shattered into a billion sharp projectiles, and Jack was left fighting his one remaining head.

Jack was about to defeat the head he was dealing with when he heard bunny cry out his name, he turned just in time to duck from two lunging heads, how had they gotten there? Jack silently counted from his crouching position, one, two, three, four, five . . . five? he hadn't remembered seeing any more than four and he could've sworn they had started out with just three, and there was a sixth head too, what was going on?

Bunny was starting to get a sinking suspicion that this was no ordinary dragon, he was beginning to think that whenever you cut off one head, two took it's place, Bunny put all the pieces together and cried out to his friend just as he was about to try and chop off one of the three heads attacking him "Jack! We can't cut off any 'eads, or two more will grow in their place!"

"What!?" Jack yelled in confusion, had Bunny finally gone crazy? how else would you defeat a monster such as this? "Then how to do we kill it?" Jack yelled back at Bunny.

"You can't kill fear," Pitch randomly interjected.

"Oh Shut up!" Jack yelled back, Pitch was beginning to sound like a broken record. "Bunny? Any ideas?"

"I don't know, 'ow do you kill somethin' without chopping of its 'ead?"

Jack though for a moment, he doubt this thing even had a heart but it was worth a try. "Bunny try to aim for it's heart!" He yelled.

Bunny looked at the three heads that were facing him, how would one of them even get near the heart of such a beast?

The hydra was sure a fitting animal to represent fear, the more you tried to defeat it the worse it got, you could never really get rid of a head because two new heads, new fears, would grow back in its place, this thing in front of them was living, breathing fear. Typical of a strategist like pitch, always one to choose the most cryptic and impossible challenges to oppose his enemies.

Bunny was not doing too well on the prospect of reaching the heart of the huge beast, he glanced over at Jack to see if his friend might have a chance. Unfortunately Jack was in even less of a position to strike the hydra's heart, he had been knocked to the ground and was holding his staff up defensively, scooting over every time a head lunged at him. The heads were getting pretty tired of slamming face first into the ground when they expected to be sinking their teeth into the flesh of a winter spirit and their agitation showed on their faces, their necks were flicking around more decisively now, as if calculating where to strike rather than blindly biting and hoping they would get a hit. Jack really hoped that these things didn't get smarter every time they got their heads cut of too, cause that would be a major problem.

Bunny was about to just try to run for it, which he knew was a horrible idea, when he thought of a plan, it wasn't really much of a plan but it would do. After focusing very hard, The ground behind the hydra began to rumble and shake, the heads simultaneously twitched in response and two of them looked behind them at the ground.

All the heads as well as Jack jumped back ins surprise when Bunny's giant stone eggs popped out of the ground. The moss-covered stones had their angry faces on and it seemed as though they were angrier looking than normal.

Jack took the moment to stand up slowly, trying not to make any noise, watching the egg warriors stand there silently. Unfortunately the head closest to Jack heard him rustling about and turned to face him, teeth bared.

The eggs saw that jack was in danger and fell over, only to roll under the unsuspecting hydra's feet and knock the beast to the ground.

Jack backed out of the range of the heads and scooted closer to bunnymund as the huge dragon regained its footing.

The Fight got back into full swing as the heads divided themselves between their enemies, two taking each opponent and snapping in their direction.

Jack backed up, only a few steps from Bunnymund, ready to fight for the sake of humanity, for as long as pitch was here he couldn't do any damage to the world.

Two heads lunged at Jack at the same time, he jumped out of the way but the heads had planned for it and ended up coming at him on either side of him. He had to jump up onto his staff to escape their razor-sharp teeth. He stayed balancing on the crook in his staff for mere seconds and then had the choice to either fall to the ground painfully of fall directly on to one of the heads, it wasn't much of a choice though, seeing as he fell without thinking and landed wherever fate carried him.

He ended up sitting on one of the hydra heads, looking confusedly at the world moving underneath him as the head tried to shake him off. He gripped tighter to the strange-feeling skin of the large beast. It was scaly but it was still made of sand so it wa not as smooth as normal scales were, he wrapped his fingers tight around the head, no really having the urge to fall off.

Bunny watched at the streak of silver and blue that was Jack swing back and forth on the black head, this would be as good a time as any to go for it's heart, all the heads were distracted.

Bunny surveyed where the best place to jump in would be, his eggs were fighting the hydra heads in the back left and right, three of the heads were trying to help the one being ridden by Jack, and one, unfortunately, was focusing on him. He tried to dodge it, but the head mirrored his every move twitching in sync with every step the easter bunny took.

Bunnymund got a crazy idea, but it was completely and utterly insane and was unlikely to work. He could cut off the head and use the delay it took to grow back to stab it's heart, but if he didn't reach it in time or something went wrong then they would be hopelessly outnumbered, and there would be very few chances of them winning. He sure hoped that this was the right course of action, he had his doubts though, they didn't even know if the thing had a heart, and if it did if that was even the right way to kill it, what if it's heart grew back too? Well, it was worth a shot.

Bunny threw his boomerang at the sandy neck of the hydra, it's magic quickly cut through the fear-filled sand and there was a stump left in it's place, Bunny had to move now.

He quickly bolted towards the body of the hydra, reaching it in one huge hop. He looked at the body, it was long and sleek, but with all the heads waving around he could barely tell which end was its chest, let alone locate the place it's heart should be.

He finally got oriented enough to see that he was facing the chest and quickly calculated where the heart would be if the creature had normal anatomy, which it hopefully did.

Bunny took his boomerang in his hand, holding it like a crooked knife, double checked where he was going to stab it, and plunged the sharp end into the dark scaly skin.

**Feedback is nice! review?**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone! sorry this took forever, my teachers seemed to think it would an amazing idea to cram as many tests as possible into last week and i was so busy studying and making presents that i had literally no time. So this is the next chapter and it is an average length, dont ask what 'the plan' is cause im not entirely sure yet ;P. so yeah i hope you like it!**

**lol I just edited this chapter because i realized that i forgot to say Merry christmas and happy holidays. so Merry Christmas and happy holidays!**

**enjoy!**

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Bunny took as far a leap back as his legs would allow, not wanting to be caught so close to the beast should their plan not work out properly.

He ended up by Jack's side, watching as the huge monster wreathed in agony, he almost felt sorry for it, but shook this thought away as he remembered that it was a nightmare, only meant to kill and haunt.

Black sand oozed from the wound, making the heads of the dragon wave around aimlessly, darting here and there, back and forth, unable to control their own direction.

It took almost a full minute for the pair of Guardians to know if their scheme had actually worked, and those seconds were full of petrifying fear of having to fight all those heads once again.

They knew they had won when they saw that the heads, one by one, were beginning to melt away to nothing. The sand was starting to blow away, slowly deforming the creature until it was nothing a but a shadow.

Jack and Bunny breathed hard, staring down at the dark spot their huge enemy had been reduced to.

They didn't have much time to celebrate their success though seeing as the nightmare king was still floating above their heads, resting in a cloud of darkness.

"Well done, you managed to defeat it, but what it I told you that that was just one of my foot soldiers?" He said maniacally, spreading his arms and pushing the sheet of darkness surrounding them back.

At first Jack thought that the darkness just looked different, but upon closer inspection he learned that the darkness itself did not look lumpy and misshapen, but the creatures lurking within it did.

There were monsters of all shapes and size, all blended together in a mess of fear. It made the darkness look as though it was shifting, almost breathing, it unnerved Jack to see how alive the fear of the world had actually become. He looked close into the darkness, he could make out lions, bears, dragons, pegasi, giant insects, and a many more monsters than he could count, probably about half of which he couldn't even name.

The only thing that you could actually make out at a glance were the barely noticeable dark grey eyes of the creatures who lurked in the blackness. They were a milky color, but at the same time it seemed as though they had a crispness that was sharp enough to cut through solid stone.

Bunny and Jack circled to see the army of fearlings, no doubt collected from the ravaged minds of the poor humans, and tried to stand as strongly as they could against the armada of darkness.

"Well, what do you think?" Pitch said, slowly approaching Jack and Bunnymund with his arms folded behind his back. "Do you like my collection of nightmares? They are so abundant now that fear rules the world." Pitch stared at the angry looks on his opponents faces, smirking and continuing happily, "Don't worry I haven't killed that many humans, just enough here and there to strike so much fear into the hearts of all that they will never be able to be dug out from the darkness!"

Jack was so angry that he couldn't control himself, he lunged forward, spear of ice in hand, and moved to stab Pitch straight through the chest. Surprisingly enough Pitch didn't even move, he had enough time too, and he obviously saw what was coming, but he just stood there, waiting.

Jack's dagger of ice plunged into Pitched chest, Bunny flinched, jumping back a bit in shock. But Pitch seemed completely fine with having an icicle sticking out of his abdomen with an angry teen attached to it, and he stood there calmly.

Jack looked into the eyes of the nightmare king, expecting to find surprise and fear, but instead finding that Pitch was wearing a smirk and his eyes were filled with glee. Something was up.

Pitch began to laugh, Jack stood back, staring at the completely intact spirit in front of him.

"You can't kill me Jack, don't you see? There is so much fear in the world that I can not die!" Pitch said, his voice rising with each word. He swiftly yanked the dagger out of his chest and threw it to his side, not even flinching when it dislodged from his chest. He summoned the scythe, and stood tall above the shocked teen. "But you, on the other hand, can." Pitch said staring evilly down at Jack frost.

Pitch extended the scythe with blinding speed, and if not for Bunny pulling Jack back by his sweatshirt the teen would most likely be dead on the ground.

"Fat chance, that you'll 'urt 'im while I'm 'ere," Bunny said, taking up a defensive stance and reaching for his boomerangs.

"Oh is that so? Well then who will protect you?" Pitch asked raising an eyebrow, and striking out at Bunny.

Bunnymund quickly hopped back, taking Jack with him just in case.

"We will," a voice said firmly from behind Pitch.

Jack looked to see that Tooth, Sandy, North, and Grim were standing together, weapons drawn, behind the Nightmare king.

Pitch didn't seem at all surprised, Jack was beginning to think that Pitch was able to tell what was happening everywhere in the world, because how else would he be so calm about all his enemies facing against him together?

"Well isn't that cute. You've all come to save your friends, what a valiant effort," Pitch said in a mocking tone, clasping his hands together near his heart in an exaggerated way to emphasize his words. "There is only one problem though" Pitch said taking a pause for dramatic effect, "You won't be able to save yourselves!"

With that the darkness seemed to ripple and Pitch disappeared into a shadow, leaving the Guardians confused and nervous.

"Took ya' long enough!" Bunny said.

"Traffic?" North said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"So is this plan o' yours gonna work?" Bunny asked, directing his question at Grim.

Grim looked at him, Bunny realized that, although Death was back to his old ghostly edges, he had kept his eyes completely visible. Must've been so they could see him easily in the darkness.

Then, in a totally uncharacteristic way, Grim shrugged.

"You don' know?!" Bunny half-shouted.

"Bunny it's our only chance," Tooth said, seeing that the fear in the air was affecting them all.

"We have to try," Jack piped in.

The creatures began to move in the darkness, shifting in between forms and never seeming to stop. They began to move in on the group of Guardians, letting out growls and groans, and noises that one would only find in nightmares under more normal circumstances.

"Alrighty then, But first we gotta find the yellow-bellied scoundrel!" Bunny said, angrily facing the mob of monsters who were ready obliterate the six spirits that represented the last bit of hope left in the world.

Everyone pulled out their weapons, save for grim who just kind of stood there, and readied themselves to find the king of nightmares in a field of darkness.

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**whoa the plan is gonna happen what will it be? i have no idea! yay spontaneous writing!**

**ideas? review? opinions? anything? thanks!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Okay sorry this took so long a rabid plot bunny attacked me and I had to write another rise of the guardians fic, so that is done, maybe, and i had time to post this, merry belated christmas! it was snowing when i wrote this and i was happy because i was thinking of Jack and it was cool but now its raining :'( oh well. I havent said that i don't own this in a while so: I dont own this!**

**Sorry if the cliffhanger is weird I couldn't think of a non weird way to end it so yeah if this chap makes no sense you can wait for the next one or you can pm me or review or whatever you want.**

**enjoy!**

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The onslaught of attackers struck as suddenly as lightning, faster than was comprehensible. They did not tense at all beforehand, giving no indication to their victims as to when they would attack.

All at once the Guardians were surrounded and fighting harder than they ever had in their lives, covered in shadows that approached from every direction. The darkness pushed into the last ray of light that was left in the world, trying to snuff it out once and for all.

The Guardians were already weak, the people of the world had little hope and even less belief, leaving them with limited power and barely any strength, if their plan didn't work then they would be gone for good and the world would be doomed.

Grim stood in the middle of his friends, timing out his plan just right, waiting for the exact moment to strike. He knew that Pitch would be somewhere in the darkness, he would eventually try and gloat from behind his black veil, perhaps throwing his voice to confuse them, but Grim would be able to tell where he was, Death knew the shadows better than anyone after all.

Grim felt bad that he was not helping his friends, but if the plan was to work he would have to go unnoticed by their attackers, so he stood very still and masked the bright light of his eyes so he could blend in with the dark backdrop of the world.

Surrounding Grim, the Guardians stood strong, despite the lack of actual strength, the only thing that was keeping them going was their belief in each other.

Jack lashed out with his staff in every direction, shooting cold air into the void of dark animals in front of him, the light pushing them back for mere seconds before they came crashing back down like black swells on a dark ocean. He was the strongest of them all since he hadn't acquired that many believers since he had become a Guardian and did not rely as much on the strength of the children as the others did.

Bunny stood to Jack's left, throwing his boomerangs whenever he got the chance, always keeping one in hand until the other returned as not to leave himself completely vulnerable.

North stood steady slashing into the shadow creatures with ferocity and anger, knowing full well that the fate of the world depended on him and his group of friends.

Next to him stood tooth and a small collection of her fairies. They stuck close together and fought off the few shadows that they could manage to hold off.

Sandman was having the most trouble of the five, fighting the sand that Pitch had created was almost impossible seeing as it was an exact match of Sandy's and could do whatever he attempted with ease.

"Well isn't this pathetic." came Pitches voice from ten different directions at once. "All of you fighting with such bravado, but for what purpose? You can't win." said the echoing voice.

Grim had heard all he had needed to, he knew where Pitch was. Grim closed his eyes, reaching into the dark with his mind, the Nightmare King was standing about 30 feet into the dark blanket of his minions, holding one arm behind his back and the scythe in the other, watching as his greatest enemies were defeated.

Grim completely melted into the ground, none of the shadow creatures would notice his absence, nor would Pitch because Grim had been completely still throughout the battle, merely another shadow in the vast sea of darkness.

The spirit of Death appeared behind Pitch, careful to stay silent, which wasn't that hard for him considering he barely ever made any noise in the first place.

Pitch's tall figure stood watching the battle, Grim found it ironic, here was the king of fear and he was standing back and observing the fight like a coward, he feared his enemies even though he controlled all fear in the world. And even though Pitch would never admit it aloud, Grim always knew when someone was afraid of death, it was how he saw the world, and Pitch was no exception, deep beneath his calm and confident facade there was a fear like no other hiding itself in the depths of his consciousness.

Grim already felt somewhat stronger just from being in the proximity of his scythe, and could feel its power slowly pulsing in the dark, looking for any sign of its rightful owner as well as anyone whose time had come.

Pitch jerked his head to the side ever so slightly, giving Grim a sign that he may have noticed his presence and allowing him time to melt into the shadows once again. Just as he did so pitch turned his head around and his bright silver eyes were visible in the darkness.

He looked around, he had definitely felt something behind him, it was no fearling of his, it had a different presence, one that, if possible, conveyed more fear than one of his own minions. He spun full circle with a calculating look on his face, still able to feel the strange existence of something that did not belong in his shadows.

Grim finally decided to show himself and on Pitch's last rotation he let his presence be known, unmasking his white eyes so that they shone through the darkness with incredible contrast.

Pitch visibly flinched when he saw Grim standing before him, but quickly regained his composure and placed his facade back up, never allowing his fear to escape for more than a few seconds before he rammed it back down into depths within him that were too dark to comprehend.

"Ah, The Grim Reaper," Pitch said walking slowly towards Grim, "And to what do I owe this honor?" He asked rhetorically, gracing the spirit of death with a sarcastic bow.

Grim just glared at the dramatic spirit in front of him, fuming that such an arrogant person could cause so much trouble.

"What's the matter? You can't speak either? It would seem that you and your friends are quite usel . . ."

He was interrupted by Grim's echoing voice resonating through the darkness. "You are afraid."

Pitch seemed somewhat shocked at hearing the silent spirit speak "Excuse me?" Picth asked in a laughing tone, "I'm afraid? I am fear, I'm never afraid, you, on the other hand should be." He said his face contorting into an angry expression and his stance becoming more aggressive as he pointed the scythe at Grim.

If Grim's features were more defined Pitch would have been able to see the smirk that graced Death's face as he watched the deadly weapon point at him. Did he really think Death could die?

Pitch shot a wave of dark energy from the blade of the scythe, sending it towards Grim.

Grim simply stood in place, not even bothering to move out of the way, the shot hit him straight on but he didn't even falter, instead he absorbed the energy and looked at Pitch with even brighter eyes.

Pitch was dumbfounded, that would have completely killed any other organism on the planet, human and spirit alike, but there stood Death completely unscathed and looking no worse for wear after receiving the powerful shot.

"You are afraid of me, I can't die, I have no fears, you have no power over me." Death said, knowing full well that Pitch did have some power, for if he were to break the scythe it might take years for Grim to regenerate back into himself again, but there was no way he was going to let Pitch in on that piece of information.

Pitch just stared, Grim was right, he was afraid, but he would never give up, he could feel that Grim did in fact have fears but they were very obscure and hard to reach through his tough outer layer.

While Pitch stood confusedly Grim phased into the ground and reappeared directly next to him, meeting his auburn-silver eyes with his own pure white stare before he reached out and grabbed hold of the scythe.

A burst of light so bright flew forth from the bony fist that lay on the scythe that it seemed as though the sun itself had landed on earth. The light was completely white, and it's rays reached far past the horizon, lighting the world and presenting a small bit of hope to those who were still alive.

As soon as it had bathed the land, the light receded, spiraling back towards the two wielders of the scythe.

Pitch stood strong, keeping his grip tight, but he could feel death closing in around him from all directions, his worst fears were realized as they were dug out from his dark center and as Grim fought for control over the life force of the wild nightmare spirit.

The light completely disappeared in a huge flash and left Girm and Pitch lying on the ground.

**Yay another chapter!**

**I wrote a song for you all:**

**If you're happy and you know it review! If you're happy and you know it review! If you're happy and you know it and you really wanna show it if you're happy and you know it review! **

**okay that was lame but whatever :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Here is the next chapter, I hope the description makes sense i made it up and i dont know if i described it well enough. anyway this is really creepy because the amount of words in the actual chapter part is 2013 and today is the last day of 2012, well have a good new years!**

**enjoy!**

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Pitch slowly stood up, leaning his hands on his knees for support, he was breathing heavily. He looked down at his hands, shouldn't he be holding the scythe? Where was it? Pitch looked around frantically, without the scythe he wouldn't have any leverage over the Guardians. Instead of finding the weapon he was looking for when he looked up he saw the last being in the universe he wanted to see standing in front of him, there stood the Grim Reaper, looking surprisingly solid and unnaturally mad, glaring right at him.

Pitch then realized that they didn't seem to be anywhere in particular, there was nothing to be seen, no horizon, no shadows, no Guardians, nothing, they were somewhere completely empty. The color was indescribable, it seemed to be a place that was all one color but it wasn't any specific shade, it seemed that every time Pitch thought he knew what color to call it it had changed to a new one, the best he could describe it was as a place filled with light.

Grim looked around as well, he knew where they were, this was his realm, it was nothing, it was nowhere, to any living creature it didn't exist, and hardly anyone had ever seen it. Grim may have been slightly more solid from the amount of energy it took to get Pitch into his realm but he felt stronger than he had since the scythe had been taken. The reason the scythe wasn't there with them was because they weren't in the tangible world anymore, the scythe had stayed behind with their bodies, only their minds were present in this realm.

Pitch looked into Grim's eyes, they seemed brighter, and he then realized that they matched the 'color', whatever it was, of the place they were in. He was very disoriented and was contemplating was to do when he heard Death speak.

"Your time has come." Said Grim, you could barely tell that the voices had come from him, since it seemed that they came from every direction, like millions of people speaking in unison, they were no longer confined to Grim's own form, they now resonated through the eerie space and simply matched the movement of Grim's lips.

"Never!" Pitch shouted, his voice seeming miniscule in comparison with the layers upon layers that had been Grim's voice, "Fear will never die."

The many voices spoke once more, "Maybe so, but fears can be repressed, for a very, very, long time, and I believe that you know that better than anyone. Your fears have been hidden for all this time, I know what you fear most." Grim came closer with every step, the voices becoming louder with each word. Grim was only inches away from Pitch when he had finished, looking straight into the eyes that feared him so much.

The silver eyes stared back, the glow of the bright flecks of orange contrasting with the depth of the black pupils that seemed to go on forever, but Grim knew that buried beneath all that hatred and power there was something that Pitch shared with most living things, a fear of death. Grim always found that to be the worst part of his job, the absolute and utter fear he was faced with all the time, the sad state most beings were reduced to when they found out who they were standing in front of. Grim wished that he could make it easier for them, but it was his job, he had to do it, he was a balancing force of nature and the world couldn't afford to have people live forever.

Now, as he faced Pitch, he didn't see a murderous tyrant, he saw a scared person, he saw any one of the millions upon millions he had met in his life standing before him. The Nightmare King was reduced to the the same state as any being who had ever faced him had always reached.

Pitch's vulnerability did not last for long though, he snapped out of it quickly and took up a defensive stance. "There is much fear present in this place, I don't believe you thought this through very well." Said Pitch, his normal, evil, self beginning to form once again.

Grim thought this through, maybe Pitch was right, but no one could defeat death, especially in his own realm.

Pitch concentrated very hard for a few seconds, and then lifted his arms slowly, appearing to be lifting something heavy from the ground. As it turned out that was exactly what he was doing, as figures began to rise from the ground.

Although the floor was completely solid the figures seemed to emerge from it as though they were rising from water. They appeared to be the same shade as the realm except each had its own color variation that shifted slightly every so often.

Grim watched as at least a dozen forms rose from the ground, great, just great, Grim could name each and every form as one of the lives he had claimed during his existence. Pitch was summoning the fear of the souls that lingered in Grim's realm.

There were figures of every stature standing before Death. Tall men with roman gladiator helmets, large animals like bears and lions, women wearing huge Victorian powdered wigs and carrying some nasty looking medieval weapons, modern looking soldiers, some with limbs missing, armed with various weapons, samurai in full battle armor, and a multitude of other kinds of warriors from different points in history. Pitch sure knew how to pick out the most spiteful and dangerous warriors from Grim's practically endless collection of souls.

"It would seem they had a lot of fear when they met you, but now I believe it's mostly anger." Pitch said with a smirk, his confidence growing by the second.

The figures looked eerily camouflaged, considering that they were all shades of the strange 'color of the realm, and Grim could see them bristling with anticipation and excitement to finally get a chance at revenge on the being who took them from their lives.

All at once the figures charged, their weapons at the ready and their indistinct faces contorted into angry sneers.

Grim phased into the ground, appearing behind the group of angry bodies. They did not hesitate in turning around, able to sense everything going on around them, they were made of the same material as the realm after all, they could feel everything that was going on everywhere.

The Grim Reaper realized that he would have to defeat them another way, he couldn't simply phase around forever, besides his friends needed him and were probably still fighting in the conscious world.

The figures began to charge again, this time they surrounded Grim and began to attack him, Grim fought them off with dark shots of energy, though it was hard to do so because he didn't want to hurt them, they were still souls and did not deserve any pain after their deaths.

Grim kept this up for a few more moments before he realized that he could use the advantage of his attackers to defeat them, if they could feel everything in the realm, he could overwhelm them if he created a big enough diversion.

Grim focused all his thoughts and energy on his realm, letting himself be attacked, he didn't mind that much, he could withstand much harsher conditions than a few souls come back to haunt him.

He reached out with his mind, calling on every soul he ever met that was encased in his realm, he urged them all to help him, telling them to yell and scream and make as much noise as possible.

At first only a few souls heeded his instructions and a few far-off sounding screams and shouts could be heard, no one seemed to notice except Grim, who was grappling with all the souls who hated him, he pleaded with them, telling them that the people who were still alive in the world were all going to die if they didn't help him, that earned him some more participants, and the figures attacking him began to look around, some covering their ears.

Some souls were jealous of those who were alive and selfishly wanted them to die, Grim's thoughts resonated through the seemingly endless area around him, trying to get the people to see how monstrous they were being. Many had forgotten the values they had once held and had become bitter and cruel, Grim asserted himself even more, something he hated doing, making his thoughts more intense and showing them a picture of the darkened world, the sight of their old home so decrepit and dark finally struck a chord in the more stubborn spirits and they too began to howl and shout with the others.

The product of Grim's efforts was a huge jumble of different sounds, some animal, some human, all loud and strong. The figures around him all began to melt away whilst clutching their heads and spinning in pointless circles. Once they had completely assimilated with the ground Grim made sure that the souls would not let anyone out anymore, because Pitch could just keep on summoning more and more souls if there was no barrier.

Grim breathed heavily and looked down at how solid he was, he could see every detail etched into his skin, he hadn't ever seen himself this solid in all of his existence. He could make out every little arm hair on his arms, every wrinkle in his skin, every fold in his simple clothing was visible. He stood slowly, standing steady in front of Pitch.

Pitch smirked and raised his arms yet again, only to look around in confusion at the ground. He couldn't summon any souls, his mind couldn't even sense the fear that these souls had, instead he found a solid wall when he tried to reach out with his mind.

Grim looked straight at Pitch, this time he was the one smirking, and Pitch could see every line and curve of Grim's triumphant expression.

"I'm sorry," Grim said, approaching Pitch, who had absolutely no idea what to do.

"For what?" Pitch asked indignantly.

"For this," Grim said touching a hand to Pitch's forehead and closing his white eyes. Surprisingly Pitch didn't move at all, he had no more ingenious ways to defeat Death, no sarcastic remark to throw, he was defeated, and the worst part was that he knew it.

Grim reached into Pitch's mind, flinching at the things that lived in the recesses of his consciousness. Grim's power wrapped around the mind that had been around for almost as long as he had, for when Death came into the world fear did not follow far behind. It pained Grim to take the life of the only being that had lived even remotely as long as him. But he could feel that the years had worn on Pitch and that he was tried, maybe this long rest was needed. He knew that Pitch would come back, but he would keep him down for as long as possible, maybe he would change in time.

Pitch's thoughts slowly became more and more disjointed, and his consciousness slowly ebbed away into the sea of souls in Grim's realm.

Pitches body completely disappeared and Grim opened his eyes, letting out a deep breath that he hadn't realized he had been holding. He could already feel Pitch's presence pushing against the restraints of death, he sighed, maybe the Nightmare King would be kept for even less time than he had originally speculated, but at least the fight was over for now.

Grim closed his eyes and when he opened them he was back in the real world, lying on the ground. He looked around, and was very annoyed when he saw that the fearlings were still running rampant and his friends were still fighting. That was why Pitch was already fighting back, because the people of the world were still terrified, they still had one more fight left.

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**So review here is the revised version of the happy and you know it song, thank you to Malica15 for giving me the idea to make it sound better:**

**If you're happy and you know it then review! If you're happy and you know it then review! If you're happy and you know it and you really wanna show it if you're happy and you know it then review!**

**ik its kind of a stretch from the 68 reviews i have as of now but im hoping that at the end of the story it will have 100 reviews :) well a girl can dream cant she!**

**anyway have a good new years! **


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry for the wait, hope everyone is having a good new year! school has gone back to it's unrelenting ways so i haven't had much time, the end is a bit bittersweet, and im planning on having at least one more chapter. I hope you guys like it!**

**Enjoy!**

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Grim ran right into the fight immediately, not even letting himself enjoy how good it felt to have his scythe back in his hands again after he had grabbed it from the ground.

A human family looked on from the darkness, scared senseless, probably even more so by the figure that they saw running through the darkness with a scythe and glowing white eyes. He was tall and blurry, and somehow they felt that they knew who he was even though they could never recall seeing anything like him in their lives, he was an embodiment of something all of them could relate to, they just didn't know what, and for some strange reason that scared them.

The small boy in the family clung to his mother, crying because of the chills he got from seeing the tall figure. She hugged him back, leaning in closer to her other child and her husband, how could anything scare them more, they had already been so terrified that they hardly remembered what felt normal any more, who was that dark figure who had the power to stir their deepest fears? They sure hoped that they wouldn't have to find out.

Grim, glanced over at the cowering family, he inwardly sighed, they probably didn't even know who he was and they were afraid of him, that was his fate though, always to be feared and never to be known, always believed in but barely ever seen. He wished he could provide hope like the other Guardians, but he didn't simply guard one human attribute such as fun or dreams, he protected all of life, and the price to pay for such a task was an eternal life where everyone knew you existed and at the same time looked at you with terrified curiosity as to who you really were.

He would never be fully known, he would only float on rumors and legends and no one would ever be able to picture him until that sad moment when they met him, and even after that they would have a hard time recalling exactly what he looked like.

Death ran through the darkness, ignoring his repetitive thoughts of sorrow and self-loathing and focusing on defeating as many fearlings as he could as he made his way to where the other Guardians stood. He couldn't afford to give up on himself now, because in truth, although everyone knew he existed, he was the only one who really believed in himself.

Once Grim was close enough he called out to his friends, now that he had his scythe back he could speak without difficulty and quickly got their attention.

Jack heard an odd sounding shout, he turned towards the noise and saw that grim was running towards them. He had done it! Jack glanced behind Grim's running form to see if Pitch was still there, but all he saw was a shadow where pitch had once lay, that must've meant that Grim had succeeded.

Jack turned back to the Grim Reaper, smiling when he saw how complete the spirit of death looked with his scythe. Grim's form was now even more flickering than when they had first met him back at the North pole, showing that he had regained all his power, Jack had forgotten how terrifying he looked in all his entirety, but now that he knew the true nature of Death he was completely at ease around the dangerous spirit.

Jack never in a million years would have thought that he would be fighting alongside Death, and if you told him that Death was a good guy a few weeks back he probably would have stalked off in anger at your 'joke'. Jack was incredibly surprised that all of this was true and found it amazing how kind and considerate Death actually was, but he was no longer Death, a lurking shadow, now he was Grim, a friend, and he wouldn't change that for anything in the world.

Grim smiled at Jack, although it was barely detectable with his features masked by his dark flickering form, and took his place with his friends, standing between Jack and Bunny, immediately joining in on their attacks.

Grim stood tall in the grouping of his newfound friends, slashing his scythe into the darkness and smiling to himself at how much stronger he felt, he had almost forgotten what it had felt like to be strong, to have a voice, and to not have to struggle with every action. For that he fought with renewed strength, wanting to undo all the damaged Pitch had done with a weapon that didn't belong to him. He would try as hard as he could to help the humans with the problem which he had inadvertently caused, because all in all he felt as though all of this was his fault and that he had to fix it.

Jack, although not as affected as the other guardians began to feel a bit better as he fought against the remaining shadows, now that Pitch was gone all they had to do was defeat them and no more would appear.

He looked over to his friends, they were doing much better than before, he imagined that what felt like a bit of adrenaline for him when believers started to dream again probably felt like they were a whole new person to the other Guardians, or bunny, in Bunnymund's case.

Jack was correct in thinking that his friends were regaining strength, they quickly began to feel more energetic and could now freely move without assistance or struggle.

North, who had been using only one sword to fight, the second being used as a makeshift cane, was now able to lash out with both of his sabers, effectively killing considerably more shadows than he had been before.

Bunny could now safely throw both boomerangs at once without the fear of being attacked in between throws, he could kick or punch any fearlings that came at him while his boomerangs were away with tremendous ease, and found that he was defeating three times as many shadows as before.

Tooth was now hovering off of the ground, able to fly once again with the belief of not only the children, but the adults as well.

Sandy, still having the hardest time, was at least having less of a hard time and was able to produce more dreamsand in less time to corrupt the nightmares and turn them into dreams.

Bit by bit the shadows began to give way to rays of light, each ray giving more hope to the people of the world.

Eventually a more rays of light were able to be seen through the darkness and some people could be seen coming out of the shadows to revel in the sunlight. Most of them wore looks of bewilderment or confusion, but as soon as they saw the figures in the distance fighting off the darkness they felt hope once again. Many of the adults found themselves believing once more in the figures they had looked up to but had long since abandoned, enjoying how good it felt to once again feel the comfort of having Guardian protecting them. Many of the children smiled and laughed when they saw the spirits they had given up on when the darkness had taken over, their joy and innocence replenished once again by their appearance.

The Guardians could see the people emerging around them, and just as the presence of the spirits had replenished the hopes of the humans, the humans gave the Guardians the strength to go on, and they fought with revived vigor.

As the shadows receded and the sun began to shine the damaged town was revealed in the light.

Jack looked out across the human town, all he could see were destroyed buildings, cars burning with an unnaturally dark flames, and sadly many corpses and injured people who lay strewn around the streets, the fear had been too much and had certainly taken it's toll. The world might never be the same again, but that was what the Guardians were for, they kept hope, fun, wonder, dreams, and memories alive, helping humans see that there is always something on the horizon.

The road would be long and hard, but Jack believed that in time they could help the humans of the world regain their childish sides, they would need the innocence and hope to rebuild the world that once was, and would be again.

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**Thank you so much for reading!**

**So what do you think? did you like the almost-ending? please review and tell me what you think or what you would like to see in the next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright here is the second to last chapter, i was gonna do it all in one chunk but i figured since its not really a cliff hanger you guys would want this part asap, if not well whatever. Pippa is back! I hope the character dont seem ooc cause idk how to write them, but this is just a little siblingly-love. I hope you like it! tell me if you want something in the last chapter, it worked for Malica15 who gave me this wonderful idea and inspiration for the next chapter as well, thanks Malica15!**

**enjoy!**

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Jack sat on the edge of a snowy glacier just outside of North's workshop, he stared out at the unrelenting terrain of the North Pole, thinking back on everything that had happened.

He couldn't believe that Pitch was dead, it was unfathomable that something like fear could even die. Jack didn't feel like the Nightmare king was dead, because his fears sure weren't, they were alive as ever and were taking much pleasure in dancing around in his mind and making him a bit of a nervous wreck.

So Jack just sat, letting the fears gallivant themselves around his stormy mind. The weather around him began to reflect his mood, hard clumps of ice falling to the snowy glaciers with force and making the air seem dark. He often found himself changing the weather when he was in a bad mood, or in any mood in general. When he was happy the breeze would become comfortably cold and a soft, light snow would fall gently to the ground, but when he was in a bad mood a rigid chill would resonate through the air and a harsh, cold volley of hail would fall to the ground.

Jack had one leg draped over the edge of the glacier and the other tucked into his chest with his head resting atop his bony knee, his staff lay ever-ready at his side and he appeared to be looking at no place in particular. His bright eyes darted back and forth as he chased his thoughts around as though they were visible before him.

He was thinking about when he had woken from his horrible nightmare, he hadn't had much time to process what had happened since they were soon after swept away to conquer the nightmares that had taken over the world. But now that the fight had passed and the celebration of victory was over all the events he had had no time to think about beforehand came crashing back to him.

The thing that disturbed him the most was the nightmare, it had all felt so real and it scarred him how he hadn't trusted his friends, it meant he had a weak will, if Pitch could get him to be that afraid of his own friends once he could most definitely do it again.

Jack knew that that had always been a fear of the other Guardians and of himself, especially when they had first asked him to join them. There was always that awkward tension between them, like they expected him to betray them at any moment, and they were right, it had happened, he had ruined easter once who was to say he wouldn't be driven to do it again? Or do something even worse?

Jack was starting to think he was the weak link in the chain, the one that could be most easily bent when pressure was applied. He didn't want to be that link, he wanted to be absolutely positive that he would never betray his friends, even if it was on accident. But he could never be sure of that, he could never be sure of himself.

He sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, hoping it might clear his mind and let him re-organize his tumultuous thoughts. But instead of being met with the calm darkness of the inside of his eyelids, all he could see were pictures from his nightmares as well as equally as terrifying ones from reality. Hundreds of dark images flashed through his ancient mind, he shook his head, seemingly unable to open his eyes, and then it all just stopped and all he could see was the dark embodiment of his sister that Grim had shown him in his nightmare, his features contorted into a sad look, his brows knitting themselves in a thoughtful, solemn way, and the edges of his mouth curled into a small frown.

He shook his head and finally opened his eyes, but to his surprise he saw the same thing, his sister was sitting beside him on the glacier, he mentally checked to see if his eyes were really open, then closed and opened them again just for good measure, but his sister still sat there. Alright that was it, he had finally lost it, he was seeing things. Jack inwardly sighed, he knew it was only a matter of time before he went completely insane, it had finally happened.

But before Jack completely committed himself to the mad house he noticed something, the only thing off about his sister, besides the fact that she was as dark as a shadow, was that she had a scythe sitting next her in a similar position to that of Jack's staff.

"Hey Grim . . . or Pippa, or whichever of you it is . . ."  
He said confusedly, rubbing the back of his head and ruffling his already-messy silvery hair.

"It me Jack," Said Pippa's voice, "I asked Grim if I could see you, he agreed, I know you're feeling down, so I came to cheer you up." she said, scooting closer to Jack and smiling gently.

"Thanks, but I'm fine." He said looking down at the snowy ground.

Pippa took his chin in her ghostly dark hands and turned his head so he was facing her, "I know that's not true Jack," She said in a low voice, when he averted his gaze she lifted his chin a bit higher and met his blue eyes with her black ones.

"Yeah, you always knew when I was lying." He said with a smile.

"Which was all the time!" she said with a laugh and a soft punch to her brother arm.

Jack laughed, "Oh shut up!" He said, a bit of the life returning to his voice, he was just happy for their little display of sibling rivalry, it reminded him of his first life before he became Jack Frost.

"So," Pippa said expectantly, "what's the problem?"

"Ah," He said dismissively, batting his hand in the air for emphasis, "It's nothing."

"Are we going to go into this again?" She asked, sounding a bit like their mother had when she scolded them for stealing sweets, "We've already established that something is wrong."

After a long period of silence he finally submitted, "Fine," He said, deflating a bit, his shoulders drooping. "I just feel like . . . like I'm the weak link, I don't want to hurt my friends."

"Oh Jack," Pippa said sadly, "You are not the weak link, you are strong, and you would do anything for your friends, Grim sure agrees with me!" She said with a smile, getting the thought of agreement from Grim, who was sort of just sitting on the sidelines of Pippa's mind until he could reform.

"But I've made so many mistakes, how do I know I won't make more? How do I keep myself from being so easily bent?" He asked, seeming to sink deeper into the wet snow.

"Mistakes will always be made, but you learn from them. And besides, Pitch is one of the most powerful beings in existence, saying that you can't stand up to him isn't saying much, no one can, everyone has a breaking point, and I would say yours is considerably high, so don't cut yourself short."

Jack smiled at his sister, she seemed to be taking up the big-sibling role pretty well, even though he was technically three hundred years older than her, she seemed to have the wisdom of an older sister.

"I have to go now, but I think Grim would like to speak with you. I love you Jack," she said, giving him a hug and standing up.

"Alright, you bag-of-bones what do you want to talk about?" Jack said, using the teasing nickname as the spirit of death was slowly enveloping his sister and her form was melding back into his. Jack always forgot that Grim had little reaction to such name-calling or joking as Bunny and the other Guardians did, but he didn't seem to mind it either so Jack sometimes found himself calling Grim odd nicknames at random intervals.

Grim stretched his limbs and sat down on the cliff-side with Jack, "I think some apologies are in order."

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**Suggestions? Wants? Questions? Feedback? whatever it is review or PM me :) **

**At the moment i have 78ish reviews or something i still have that impossible goal in my mind of reaching a hundred so if u feel at all inclined to, press the review button**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hello, this is probably going to be the last chapter unless someone has an idea or suggestion for another. SOrry that it is kind of short, it just turned out that way. I would like to thank everyone who favorited, reviewed, and followed this story, You really have been amazing and supportive, I am so happy that I could bring you a story that you wanted to see more of and followed to the end, I can not thank you enough! I never thought I would make a story that was 15 chapters long, I used to read stories like that and wonder how they did it and now I know, with the support of fans, thats how!**

**Thanks to malica15 for the request that inspired this chapter and the last one!**

**You are all amazing!**

**enjoy!**

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"I know," Jack said, "I'm sorry I didn't trust you guys, and I'm sorry that I thought you were kind of evil," Jack said with a sheepish smirk, rubbing his hand on the back of his head nervously.

"I was not asking for an apology Jack," Grim said in his layered voice, Jack noticed that it seemed to be more uniform now and the voices seemed to be more packed together with less of an echo. "I wanted to apologize to you," continued the spirit of death.

"What for? You helped save the world, you helped save me." He said, looking at the ground,still feeling a bit down about his nightmare and the current state of the human world.

"I have caused so much pain in your life, I took you away from your family. I am the reason you became Jack Frost and could not live a normal life with your sister and your parents, and for that I am truly sorry." Grim said, sounding more morose than usual.

"But it's your job, you can't help that, and I don't blame you for any of it," Jack said, trying to focus on the indescribable face of Death. "Besides I wouldn't be here with you guys, with my new family, if it wasn't for you, so thank you. You may have taken away one life but you ended up giving me another." Jack said with a sad smile, what he was saying was true, he loved his friends like they were family, they _were_ family, no doubt about it, he knew that any one of them would do anything for another, it was the first place he had belonged in a long time.

"I suppose you are right, I never looked at it like that, thank you for forgiving me, but I don't know if I will ever be able to forgive myself." Grim said in his usual calm manner, although Jack thought he could hear a bit of pain in his voice.

Jack wasn't entirely sure of what to say, not sure if the sad spirit sitting next to him wanted to talk about it, or if he was even correct about the sadness hidden in Death's voice. He didn't want to bring up something that would just make Death even more melancholy, he couldn't imagine how hard it was to be the Grim Reaper, having to face millions of people a day and scare them to death, literally. He couldn't even fathom how that would feel, He had only died once and Grim had to die every time he took a life in a sense, each time he added one more voice to his own, each time his burden became heavier, Jack was beginning to wonder how Death kept it all in without exploding.

The two sat there is silence for a few moments, thinking about each other, each with some pity and empathy, they each had qualms to settle with the other, and they had the feeling that over time they could fix all the damage that lay beneath their facades.

"Your sister really loves you." Grim said, not turning his head to look at the teen, his gaze cast out over the ice.

Jack just smiled, it was comforting to know that she still cared for him.

"She does, she has a very strong spirit and I can feel her strongest emotions. It is often like that with a few bright souls I keep within the borders of my realm, I can tell what they feel and they often affect my emotions or thoughts."

"She always was quite the loud mouth," Jack said in a joking way, laughing lightly.

Grim smirked, he could feel Pippa's feigned anger at Jack, but her feelings of love were more prominent. "Was not!" Grim said, but the voice of a woman sounded a bit louder than the other's, and Grim looked as though he just burped or something, he was a bit shocked, he hadn't meant to say that.

Jack looked a Grim with a smile, and or a moment thought he could see a smile on Grim's lips as well.

They both began to laugh.

They sat for a moment, just laughing, letting the happy warmth that came along with it push aside the darkness that they both knew was present within themselves. And in that moment, both spirits felt as though nothing was wrong with the world.

At the same time they both seemed to realize that they hadn't done this in a while, actually laughed. They were truly happy, and even if there would always be something bad looming in the distance, and Pitch would most likely return, all that mattered at that moment was that they were laughing, and they couldn't seem to stop.

_the end_

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**Hope you like it, or loved it, it took a while to write and I am so glad to have written it, thanks again!**

**review please, tell me what you thought of the story as a whole, or just this chapter, or whatever you want. Any suggestions? if so PM or review!**


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